More Mass Effect 2 Progress

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 went about well as planned, as went and picked up Mordin on Omega, and I was right, that triggered the start of the Horizon colony mission... which was a lot harder than I was use to, as Garrus and Miranda kept getting downed. I think I used more Medi-Gel in this one play through of Mass Effect 2 than I did the entire franchise up to this point. 

Anyway, once that mission was done, that unlocked the start up of the current squad's Loyalty missions, but I held off on doing that to tackle the Arrival DLC mission. Now technically that mission is supposed to take place after the Suicide mission of the main story, but I like to get it out of the way because it gives Shepard an extra level up if things go right, progress can be made to a few achievements during in and there are two things I hate about... sneaking around the prison camp... and then trying to survive five waves of enemies. 

Now I know the best strategy is to duck behind the L-Shape desk that is to the left from the side Shepard enters the room, the problem is I forget about how the enemies with the flamethrowers will get in close... plus I should've used the heavy weapon I was carrying to make it more possible... but I like to save it's ammo to deal with the mech when making the grand escape to the comm tower.

 

Once Arrival was done, I cleared out a couple of 'findable missions' that popped up and nabbed the final items I needed on Omega. At this point I will need to tackle some loyalty missions and find a few more side missions to try and get all the items I can that are on Ilium and Tuchanka.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Covert Action: Rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson without attracting hostile attention
• The Ultimate Sacrifice: Complete the Arrival DLC pack
• The Professor: Successfully recruit the Professor
• Scientist: Complete any research project in the Normandy's laboratory
• Colony Defense: Defend a human colony from attack
• Power Full: Evolve any power

Twitch Clip Links

• Sweet... oh wait there is one more!
• Oh great... the Scions
• It's not like it's going to explode... 

For the the raid we dropped in on Joliet4 who was playing Halo: Reach over on twitch.tv/joliet4! You know I have never play any games in the Halo franchise... it is on the to do list.  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1, and Beginner Combo #2.Also set a new personal best for Difficult Challenge Combo #2 on No Mercy difficulty. (895 Actions: 884 Perfect, 11 OK, 1 Miss)

Messed around with Super Night Riders off-stream laster, which actually has a connection to another game we played this year Light Fairytale Episode 1. It is an arcade style racer, similar to say Super Hang-On, where you race to each check point as quickly and efficiently as possible to continue. There are 20 achievements, and I managed to knock out 10 tonight. I figure we can go for one or or two night to help extend the Xbox daily achievement streak which is up to 55 days.

Super Night Riders Achievements

• That was Close!: Pass near a rival without crashing.
• 1st Stage Cleared: Cleared your first stage.
• Mélomane: Listened to all the music tracks.
• Hang On!: Keep trying after a game over.
• Hang On and Pass!: Keep trying and pass the stage you previously failed on.
• Course 1 Cleared: Cleared the course 1.
• Course 2 Cleared: Cleared the course 2.
• Max Score: Get a score of 75K in one second.
• Course 3 Cleared: Cleared the course 3.
• Forest Stage Cleared: Cleared the forest stage.

So the Overwatch Anniversary Remix event started and... boy the new looks for some classic legendary skins are a real mixed bag. Mercy's Mage skin variant of the Witch skin looks nice, as does D.va's White Cat variant of the existing Black Cat, but the new variants for Genji, Repaer, Reinhardt and Zenyatta are just... lazy with the new alternate color skin (Demon, Evermore, Steelhardt and Zealot). The second chance event for the limited challenge skins is fair play for those who missed it the first time around, as this week it is the D.va's Nano Cola Challenge.

For tonight's stream we will be focusing on Fallout 76, and seeing if some things that I read were correct regarding what I have to worry about in the game besides everything.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

A Night Dedicated To The Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream ended up featuring every single game that was apart of the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology which was released for the PlayStation 2 back in 2006. This meant last night we played Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix!

Now I am no stranger to Alpha. Alpha 2 and Alpha 3, in fact we played all of those games last year using the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, and despite the different feel a PlayStation 2 controller has when playing a fighting game versus a Xbox controller really not much of a difference here. Though I will say we did do the Dynamic battle mode in all three of those games and the only one I was able to complete was Alpha 3's. I will also say this, playing Alpha 2 did saw me face Shin Akuma... it did not go well

Now I've never played Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold before, and yes its the Sega Saturn port of Alpha 2... but goodness me, the music tracts for it sound terrible in comparison to the original tracks. Near as I could 'hear', the Gold mix for Alpha 2 has a lot more tremble and a lot less bass, which makes things sounds way off. Add onto it the cowbell in Sodom's theme is rather irritating, and the butchered mess that is Sakura's theme needs to be lost to time.

The version Zero 3 Upper is the version of Alpha 3 that was for the the PlayStation 1, DreamCast and Sega Saturn, which means it has the expanded console roster, which I believe gave it the largest in game selection of characters for any Capcom fighting game up to that point only to be surpassed by Marvel vs Capcom 2. I could be wrong about that. Anyway, not much of a difference between Zero 3 Upper and Alpha 3 near as I can tell... but we did beat M.Bison as Sakura with it, making it twice I beat a version of Alpha 3's final boss with her.

Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, aka Pocket Fighter, was a real joy to play. I have seen Maximilian_Dood (twitch.tv/Maximilian_Dood) play it, so I kind of had a good idea of the mechanics of getting the gems to power up the special moves... but even with seeing gameplay of it before, a lot of the stuff in the background caught my attention... such as Dimitri's sliding across a floor, DeeJay rocking out behind the bar, and M.Bison apparently taking Cammy shopping

All in all I had a blast with all these games last night and I was glad I grabbed a copy of  Street Fighter Alpha Anthology when I did in 2020, because it made for an awesome stream.

Now since Alpha 2 Gold, Zero 3 Upper and Super Gem Fighter were all new things (to me), I am going to count the arcade runs of those three games on this year's tour.

For the raid we dropped in on Oldish22 who was playing Elden Ring over at twitch.tv/oldish22!

Twitch Clip Links

1. Caught Her!
2. First time facing Shin Akuma... I was not prepared 
3. The Trade Off In Our Favor! (Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold)
4. Defeating Bison with Sakura... AGAIN!!!!! (Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper) 
5. Mighy Combo Finish!
   

I have decided to remove BitBoss from the stream, as the way it keeps acting up makes it more frustrating than it should be. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Uppercut Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Triple Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 414 kcal.

Went back into Light Fairytail Episode 1 to clear out the remaining achievements, and the stealth minigame was certainly a pain in the ass, had to do it three times because I didn't realize what the score was needed to get the 'Ex-Number One' achievement on the first run (it's 105, I stopped at 95), on the second attempt I got caught at 100... so that left a third attempt. Still I take some pride in being the 470th person over on TrueAchievements to complete the game, so that's a positive!

Light Fairytale Episode 1 Achievements

• 250+ HP damage: Did a 250+ single HP damage to an enemy.
• High scorers club: Got a high score of 75+ in the stealth minigame.
• Number one: Got the stealth contest's ultimate prize.
• Ex-number one: Got an orb from the former number one.
• All cleared!: Cleared all the achievements. Congratulations!

Iceman will not be joining us this evening, so the start of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition will be delayed, man has not had a day off in a few weeks!

So for tonight's stream we'll mess around with what ever comes to mind! 

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Light Fairytale Episode 1 Is A Great Start

Good morning everyone,

Light Fairytale Episode 1 was featured last night and it certainly was a charming little game that is clearly inspired by Final Fantasy VII... and unlike Final Fantasy VII, Light Fairytale's clear opening act isn't bogged down with a half dozen plot elements. We get introduced to Haru and Kuroko, we get a clear understanding that they live towards the bottom of an underground complex... and Haru has a dream about 'the sky', something he has never seen.

The battle mechanics are very straight forward, as it is a traditional turn-base style and it was made really clear to me that there would be a limit on healing items. Good news is our heroes have 'Fury' moves, or what is basically the equivalent of Limit Breaks, Haru's is a group heal while Kuroko's is a 5 hit combo on one enemy. The music and artwork are actually quite good, as everything seems to gel quite nicely for a nice casual experience.

Perhaps the best part of Light Fairytale Episode 1 is that we can see the story from both Haru and Kuroko's perspectives, which really helps with the game's cliffhanger ending, that clearly makes me eager to make arrangements to play Episode 2. But before I do that, I would want to take care of the remaining achievements in Episode 1. On a blind play-thru I was able to get 19 of the 29 achievements, but the remaining 10 were not very obvious or straight forward. 

Of course that does mean I did start a third play-thru following the stream to go after many of the achievements I missed, picking up 5 more. The remaining ones I need are focused a round doing 250+ attack and dealing with the stealth mini-game.

Now we did two play-thrus of Light Fairtyale last night, so I do count the game as being finished, and so we messed around some with SoulCalibur on stream to get some footage of that. Did an Arcade run as Ivy, got to 16 with Taki in Extreme Survival and 31 with Maxi in normal Survival. A pretty solid exhibition of a good game.

For the raid we dropped in on SeverOmega who was playing Rock Band 4 over at twitch.tv/severomega!

Light Fairytale Episode 1 Achievements

• Sneaky: Talked to some NPCs from behind.
• Childhood friends: Checked the gray duck at the park with Kuroko.
• Welcome home!: Rested at Haru's place before the fortune teller event.
• There you are!: Found hiding Kuroko.
• Ruled by these guys?!: Overheard the station soldiers talking.
• Out of my way!: Talked to the sprinting scavenger.
• Scary smile...: Talked to angry Kuroko.
• 1st win!: Won your 1st battle.
• Fizzle maniac: Checked the fizzle vending machine before the fortune teller event.
• Night rider!: Did better than Kuroko's high score.
• That was close!: Slipped near the cliff.
• Don't anger me: Reached the fury status during a battle.
• 100+ HP damage: Did a 100+ single HP damage to an enemy.
• "Haru? Haru! Haruuu!": Got caught during the stealth minigame.
• Materialist: Went to the corridor with Miyu's materials.
• The journey begins: Completed Haru's story.
• B-bomb?!: Got a bomb from the hiding cat girl.
• My precious...: Checked the class 3 A.R. goggles before talking to Daisuke.
• Alternate journey: Completed Kuroko's story. 
• Dreamer boy: Tried to return to the cliff just after the opening cutscene.
• A.R beginner: Got used to your A.R. goggles before the 1st battle.
• Freebie: Rested during the spiders battles.
• Calculating guy: Got the ground credits in level 1 or 2 after the fortune teller event.
• Glasses...: Gave back Emiko's credits.
  

Twitch Clip Links

1. Scary Smile... that's an achievement
2. The Heavy Crusher
3. The Spider Tank!
4. Ivy vs Inferno
5. Can we get to 30 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Double Combo #2, Advanced Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 551 kcal.

Did a quick raid, Deltascape 3.0 last night in Final Fantasy XIV, I've only done it once because, but it's mechancis are so straight forward. Someday I may even try the savage version but yesterday was not that day!

My current XBox achievement streak is now at 19 days, I'm thinking we can get it 21 days with getting any achievements on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

For tonight's stream, at the time I'm writing this I'm not 100% sure of what we're going to do, but you know I'll be up to something!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Six Plays Of The Game In One Night? Madness!

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was of course focused around getting the matches and wins needed for the Reaper's Code of Violence awards, which we were able to pull off in the first three hours of the stream. Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of all the fun!

Now I'm trying really hard to think of if I ever had a stream where I had six plays of the game as I did last night. I've had four in a night a couple of times, but never six. And I was using my usual characters, D.va as a Tank and Moira as Support, but for the few Damage role matches I used Mei. So it was a crazy night in that regard. Probably my favorite moment was dropping a D.va bomb right at the spawn point of the enemy team that got a triple kill... but then there was also getting resurrected as Mei and popping her ultimate to get a few eliminations

As far as the new Reaper skin goes, it looks decent enough and I'm surprise they are calling it as a Legendary skin for him, because I doubt it will become available at any point via Loot Box. The whole event being based around him meant I could sub out the word Violence and replace with with Violins, because if you say both words they sound almost the same.

For the raid we dropped in on PradoxGamerAU over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerAU who was doing a Dungeon and Dragons stream!

Twitch Clip Links

1.  Double... no TRIPLE KILL!
2.  Right at their door step!
3.  I die... I get rez... I freeze!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with Uppercut Combo #2, Body Hook Combo and Body Uppercut Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 441 kcal. In terms of the extra exercises, I set a new personal best for Double Combo #2 on No Mercy difficulty. Also as of today we're up to 45 out of 50 hours trained for the Hiro's Champion achievement.

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercise February 2022

• Punches Thrown: 43,475 (37,359 in 2021)
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 17,904.25 kcal (16,413.35 in 2021)
  

Messed around some more with SoulCalibur last night, going through the arcade mode with every character I haven't yet to earn the Edge Master achievement. There are four achievements left in the game, two related to Time Attack, one for beating arcade mode on its hardest difficult and the last is for defeating 25 straight opponents in Extra Survival (one hit sudden death). That last one I've hit a streak of 20 a few times as Taki, but man its frustrating to get so close but then to start over!.

SoulCalibur Achievements

• Edge Master: You have mastered all characters and defeated every opponent in Arcade Mode.

A lot of folks are making a big deal about Nintendo saying that Super Smash Bros will not be featured at EVO this year. Let's keep in mind a few things, Nintendo never wanted Smash to be included at EVO in the first place, that was something they reluctantly did to get some good will from those who play it competitively. Second, Nintendo announced a while back that they are going to work with someone else when it comes to coordinating an actual competitive scene for Smash. Besides, as

Fans of Asuka are rather pissed this morning when it has come out that the WWE has no creative plans for her after it was speculated she was supposed to return to TV. Here's the reason why there are no creative plans for Asuka: Becky Lynch is being wasted in an attempt to get Bianca Belair over and Charlotte Flair is being wasted as cannon fodder for Ronda Rousey. So when the top two match ups that are possible for Asuka are off the table, any thing else is really just a waste of time. 

For tonight's stream, we're going to mess around with Light Fairytale Episode 1, which is apparently a short little RPG, that should only take a few hours to finish. Knowing me it will take two or three nights! Anyway, we'll be using the Xbox Series console for it.

Anyway on that bombshell we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

 

Whole lot of things

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch certainly was interesting with a lot of overly aggressive matches, some suspect new comers and other craziness. There was one Lucio who seemingly got their 'Soundwave' back faster than usual, keeping in mind, all matches were just Quick Play bouts, and it didn't help they appeared to be a smurf. So his bony ass got reported as so as something was noticed.

Big thanks to BangBangBang713 for joining in on several matches, always awesome to play with members of the community! Picked up one play of the game as D.va, and got in a few matches as her, Moira and Mei this evening, and I did use Reinhardt for part of one match and Tracer as a back fill in another.

For the raid we dropped in on Redneck_23 who was just doing a Just Chatting stream over on twitch.tv/redneck_23!

Twitch Clip Links

1.  The Focus Was Real
2.  I'm on fire... first one way and then the other
3.  A Nice Wall

For today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 and Beginner Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 482 kcal.

Messed around more with Moral Kombat IX to earn some basic achievements, we'll most likely dedicate time to the Story Mode this week, maybe for Saturday's stream perhaps.

Mortal Kombat Achievements

• Complet-ality: Perform 1 of each type of "-ality"
• Finish Him?: Perform any fighter's hidden finishing move
• Tag, You're It!: Perform and land a Tag Combo
• Robots Rule!: Win Arcade Tag Ladder with robot Sektor and Cyrax

Capcom officially announced Street Fighter VI, and here's hoping it's not just limited to the PlayStation side of the console market. That was easily the biggest drawback about Street Fighter V. That said, I'm more excited for the Capcom Fighting Collection  that will be coming out this summer, which will include every Darkstalkers game, plus other stuff like Red Earth, Cyberbots, Super Puzzle Fighter II, Pocket Fighter and the Anniversary edition of Hyper Street Fighter II.

 We added a few things to X-Box side of heavy considerations for streaming in the future

• Light Fairytale Episode 1 & 2
• The Adventures of Elena Temple: Definitive Edition
• Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins 
• Binary Domain
• Dead of Alive 1 Ultimate
• Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate
• Dead or Alive 3 Ultimate

Elena Temple is a retro styled platformer, Heard Binary Domain was a lot like Gears of War, so that could be interesting, of course the Dead or Alive Ultimate versions of the first three games that were on the original X-Box is more for easy completion. Light Fairytale is an episodic turn-based JRPG that apparently didn't do well enough to warrant the series continuing... and the Doctor Who game is another odd-ball licensed by the BBC instead of giving the franchise a proper video game experience.

That is something that always bugged me, outside of the 11th Doctor era, there has not been much of note for the Doctor Who franchise in the realm of video games. To be honest, the show does lend itself more towards the point and click adventure style of video game, which we got with the Doctor Who: Adventure Games, but there was a fairly decent action platformer as well with Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, and I believe the last major release was your basic Candy Crush styled game in the form of Doctor Who: Infinity. 

For tonight's stream we're going to start up Tell Me Why, which is a narrative driven game developed by DONTNOD. I've heard good things about it, and I figure this might take two, at the most three streams to finish.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!